The human intervertebral disc (IVD) provides support for the vertebral bodies, allowing for movement and load bearing. The IVD can degenerate with age or injury, impeding function and causing chronic pain. Despite disc degeneration affecting over 90% of adults over age 50, and back pain being the leading global cause...
The pulse-coupled oscillator model is widely used to simulate the dynamics of neural systems. For networks with particular internal (Mirollo-Strogatz) dynamics, I will define three broad patterns of collective behaviors found in literature in terms of inter-spike interval (ISI) statistics. These patterns are i) temporally-regular, characterized by all oscillators in...
Tendinopathy is characterized by injured or inflamed tendons and can be caused by long durations of strain or excessive tension being applied. Current treatments for tendinopathy may include physical therapy and pain management. However, these methods may not heal the tendon or restore it to its original healthy state. New...
Anammox (Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation) is a significant biogeochemical process carried out by certain bacteria, generally referred to as anammox bacteria. These bacteria have the ability to anaerobically oxidize ammonium (NH4+) with nitrite (NO2-) to form nitrogen gas (N2) without an organic carbon source. While anammox bacteria are found in a...
Plastics have become an essential part of everyone lives, found in almost every product made today. Tires only make up a fraction of these products but as their use increasing so does the microplastics that flake off. Many studies have evaluated the toxic effects of tire particles on aquatic environments...
There is no standardized method for culture of intervertebral disc (IVD) cells when monitoring metabolic processes. We hypothesize that the metabolic rates of cells that are crucial to experiment designs depend on the cell culture method used. The glycolytic pathway and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle are the pathways through...
Degeneration of the intervertebral disc (IVD) is a phenomenon that has yet to be adequately addressed. Treatment options remain limited and incomplete. The ability to effectively cryopreserve IVDs would allow for better allograft transplantations and storage of samples for research purposes. This study aimed to assess how cryopreservation with different...
Eukaryotic cells have developed elaborate biochemical processes to counteract oxidative stress, electrophiles, or carcinogens due to environmental insults. One of these important cellular defense mechanisms is mediated by the transcription factor Nrf2 that have been shown to have decrease activity with age. While the process of which Nrf2 is involved...
Invasive breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women during their lifetime. Current cancer research uses 2-D cell culturing, which does not accurately represent tumor behavior. In comparison to tumors, cells grown using 2-D cell culturing have different proliferation and diffusion rates, cell shapes, and gene expression. To improve in vitro...
The forest products industry relies on the production of high-quality wood to satisfy consumer requirements. Improving wood quality requires an effective and inexpensive technique for measuring critical properties such as density and microfibril angle. An emerging technology known as near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR HSI) essentially captures surface images of samples...